What Racism Looks Like

Think this is funny? Youre probably a racist if you do.

Thanks to the rabble-rousing of Donald Trump, the formerly moribund crackpot theories of the Birther bunch is enjoying an undeserved second life.  Trump, who may-or-may-not be running for president, has vaulted to the top of a shallow Republican candidate pool based upon his name recognition and willingness to throw the rawest of red meat to hard-core Obama haters.

All of this absurdity got me to thinking of how at the center of Birtherism’s dark little heart is a belief system based upon racism and White supremacy not all that different from the most krazy Ku Klux Klansman or nutty neo-Nazi.

There are doubtlessly Klansmen who when they’re not burning crosses don’t think the Black or Jewish guy they work with are all that bad.

It’s reasonable to assume not every German soldier shared the rabidly anti-Semitic sentiments of the Führer.

But no one can seriously suggest the Klan is not a racist organization or the Nazis pursued an agenda of eradicating Jews from the face of the planet.

Is it possible to believe there is something to Birtherism and not harbor racist feelings toward Blacks? Sure. I even know a few deranged Black conservatives who are Birthers.

But what drives Birthers is a reactionary response to a Black man in the White House and that is racist.

I don’t have any doubt of the racism within the Birther belief system. It’s a more genteel version of racism, but so were the White Citizens Councils as opposed to the crudeness of the Klan.

Birthers are an organized group like the Klan or the Third Reich. They don’t have a fixed address or appointed leader.

What the Birthers do have is a clear delineated belief system and that belief is they alone have found out a hidden secret about Barack Obama than no other politician, no opposition research gatherer and no media outlet ever could find.

It’s a mistaken belief system just as were the Nazis and the Klan, but since the Birthers deny all evidence to the contrary they are just as far removed from the mainstream and out there as a lunatic fringe as any other whacked out group.

The belief Obama is an illegitimate president allows the believer to deny the reality that a Black man could be The Most Powerful Man in the World and the Leader of the Free World. Birtherism maintains the White supremacist tenet that only White people can and should hold power.

Birthers take their hateration of Obama to absolute zero levels of denial and shutting their little minds off from the truth.   But that’s the pernicious thing about racist thinking.  It starts off confined to the fringes.  Like a virus, it moves into and infects the mainstream.

A California tea party activist refuses to step down after her racist email of President Obama is leaked.


The controversial and offensive email, sent by Davenport, shows the president’s face photoshopped over the head of a baby chimp. The caption beneath the pic reads, “Now you know why no birth certificate.”

Someone leaked the email supposedly sent as a joke to Davenport’s friends. When she got word of the leak and that people were upset, Davenport commented by saying, “Oh, come on! Everybody who knows me knows that I am not a racist. It was a joke. I have friends who are black. Besides, I only sent it to a few people–mostly people I didn’t think would be upset by it.” At first she didn’t even apologize instead asking for the “coward” who leaked the email to come forward.

The Republican Party of Orange County Chairman Scott Baugh is calling to launch an ethics investigation about the incident, and that he is calling for her resignation. Baugh said, “It’s just highly inappropriate, it’s a despicable message, it drips with racism and I think she should step down from the committee.”

Davenport went on to say that she will not step down but she apologizes to anyone who may have been offended. She insists that “in no way did I even consider the fact he’s half black when I sent out the email” and decries the “double standard” that applies to President Barack Obama.

The former chairman of the California Republican Party Michael Schroeder says that this email is Davenport’s third strike. He too is calling for her resignation, saying this is her third strike. He says that she has defended the racist actions of two fellow Orange County conservatives on two occasions.

The first was when President Obama was inaugurated, and Los Alamitos Mayor Dean Grose forwarded an email depicting a watermelon patch on the White House lawn to several people. According to Schroeder, Davenport defended Grose amidst calls for his resignation.


If it walks like a racist and it talks like a racist and it defends racist depictions it is a racist. When you’re  backed into a corner and your only defense is to play the “Some of My Best Friends Are” card it’s a sure sign of how hopelessly dishonest you are.   Marilyn Davenport is a racist.

I expect the amen corner of the Tea Party and the Republican Party to explain how Miss Davenport’s repugnant ignorance is only an isolated case, and in no way is representative of the Tea Party as a whole and golly gee it was only a joke.
Welcome to post-racial America. Next stop over after Oz and before Atlantis.